Student Number: 27
by Zedzy555
Summary: It's hard to make the jump from 2D to 3D, and Ritsu is no exception. With a new human body (sort of), she's about to learn what it means to be "human" with the help of Class E and their wacky octopoid teacher!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Seat 27 is Occupied**

"What…is that?"

Those were the first words to leave Nagisa Shiota's lips as he entered the classroom. For once, he'd decided he'd come to the miserable satellite campus early.

But his gaze was locked onto an immense abnormality in the very back of the room.

Sitting right there, a short distance behind Karma's seat, was a massive chrome-colored steel pod that looked like it could take a nuclear bomb from point blank and come out unscathed. That, or Ultron was creating The Vision inside the Class E's very own classroom. Wires and coils of all sorts ran to and from it, and they

 _Then again, we have a teacher here who can defuse a missile loaded with a nuke while drinking a milkshake from Jamba Juice._

"Ah, Nagisa. Good to see an early bird in the classroom today."

That signature laugh of his and the way he addressed the middle school student, plus the very faint sound of slithering that Nagisa could hear from behind him confirmed the fact.

"Good morning, Koro-Sensei." He said, turning around to face his homeroom, science, math and…well, the teacher for every single subject except for English and Physical Education.

The massive yellow octopus stared down back at him with his signature, ever-present smile. "Are you interested in that pod, Nagisa?"

"Yes…" Nagisa turned back around to gaze curiously at the oval-shaped hull that stood in the classroom sticking out like a polar bear in the Bahamas. "What is that thing doing there?"

Nagisa walked into the room, depositing his bag into the chair where his table stood before hesitantly drawing closer to the steel. As he walked forward, his hand brushing Karma's desk, he realized that a number of wires ran into Ritsu's terminal.

"Um, Koro-Sen…" Nagisa turned around to ask a question that had come to his mind, but fell silent in shock as he realized that his teacher had somehow managed to leave the room and return wearing a white labcoat while holding a number of laptops in his tentacles. "What's with the labcoat and the gadgets?"

"I'll be explaining the circumstances surrounding the pod when the rest of the class arrives." He replied, walking forward and past Nagisa, resting a tentacle onto the top of the pod.

 **Forty Five Minutes Later…**

"Alright, everyone's present! Good morning, class!" Koro-Sensei's face went bright red as he put down the attendance sheet. "Now, I have a very important announcement to make."

"It's about time!" Kayano complained as she stood up and pointed at the pod. "Come on, tell us what's in there already! I wanna know~!"

"Now, now, calm down. Kayano, have a seat. I'm sure you're going to need it once we're done here." Koro-Sensei replied, snickering a bit before pointing at the pod in the back. "I'm already 100% sure you all have noticed the pod in the back of the room. If you hadn't noticed it yet, that means you get extra homework for having poor observation skills as my future killers!"

"No one's not gonna notice that thing!" Terasaka replied, slamming a fist into his desk to end the conversation before it could get out of hand. "Get to the point, octopus!"

"Alright, alright." Koro-Sensei disappeared for a moment, reappearing next to Ritsu's monitor. "To tell you the truth, Ritsu has been researching and preparing for a project a few days after I gave her the software and hardware upgrade that turned her into the student she is now."

"So?" Karma asked, leaning back into his chair. He looked as relaxed as always, with the constant glint of mischief present in his eyes.

"So…within the next few seconds, you are going to see-"

Suddenly, the loud noise that was the whirring of machinery suddenly exploded from the pod and forced half of the class to cover their ears in reply. The others stood up in alarm save for Karma, who just stared at the pod. The red haired student glanced at the steel oval and then stared at the terminal, and then grinned. "I get it."

Steam poured out of the machine with a violent, angry hiss that pierced the ears of those who didn't cover them. After a few moments of the steam clouding their vision, the students removed their hands from their ears and tried to squint through the dissipating white smoke that blocked their view.

As it cleared, they saw that a hatch had opened in the pod.

An instant after seeing that, the class rushed forward to see what was inside.

Silence reigned for ten seconds.

And the first to speak was Okajima. "Holy crap, 2D went 3D!"

The next reaction was for every boy there to turn around with the reddest face they'd ever managed to create in their human lives.

The hatch revealed an opening much like a mold that was shaped exactly like a human being. It looked like someone could pour in iron and close the hatch, and opening it an hour later would present you with a statue of steel.

But resting inside the pod was a familiar face. With long purple hair and skin that looked to smooth to be real, The Fixed Artillery's lovable mascot had been given form.

In other words, they were staring at Ritsu in what seemed to be the _flesh_.

And in her birthday suit, too.

"What's going on, Koro-Sensei?!" Kurahashi asked, still in shock. "What did you do?! Why does Ritsu have a body?!"

"And why does she have big boobs?!" Kayano pointed accusingly at Ritsu's chest. "Those are not the measurement she told me! For sure!"

 _Is that really what you have to say, Kayano?_ Nagisa thought to himself, unsure if he should laugh or pat her on the back comfortingly as he averted his gaze from the purple-haired girl lying unconscious with her eyes closed in the pod next to him.

Koro-Sensei delivered his signature laugh before he replied. "That is for her to explain, not me."

The monitor then turned to face the students crowding the pod, and the screen booted up to see Ritsu looking at them with a smile.

"Good morning, everyone!" She said merrily. "Now, I'm going to explain what's going on."

She pointed at the pod, and one of her guns emerged from the monitor and pointed at it like a finger. "You see, after running scans on the information through the software that Koro-Sensei had given me, I have come to the conclusion that teamwork will be made much easier if I have a physical form with which to move around in and manipulate."

Koro-Sensei raised his own tentacle, drawing the class' attention to him. "She performed the upgrades herself. I simply brought her the materials, the blueprints and the information. Therefore, I did not violate the new terms of my teaching contract."

"You're a sneaky one." Karma grinned.

"Where did you get the parts for this? Rather…what's she made of?" Isogai asked, his face still a slight red. "You didn't go grave hunting for these, did you?"

"No, not at all." Koro-Sensei replied, wagging his finger. "Ritsu herself designed her body using a machine designed to produce experimental bio-matter that can be altered by machine to reproduce the appearance of most any biological creature. Her body is very human, but every single part of her, down to the molecular level, has also been altered to accommodate nanomachines. She has more processing power than any other supercomputer in the planet."

Koro-Sensei's tentacle snaked all the way from where he was over to Ritsu's pod and tapped the body's head. "The crown jewel of her design is over here, in her brain. It is the central focus of her processing power, a total of several hundred terabytes of RAM."

"That's…a little over the top." Sugino uttered his words of amazement while gaping at the sheer prospect of Ritsu's processing capabilities.

"Impressive." Nagisa muttered, looking back at Ritsu through her terminal's LCD. "You must have really gone really far to do this."

"Yes, I have, and it was worth the effort." Ritsu replied, smiling. But her smile suddenly dulled, and she sighed. "But I have to get past the most difficult part now."

"Which one is?" Karma asked, standing up from his chair and pointing at the pod that everyone else still refused to gaze inside. "Getting you clothes?"

"Oh, did I forget to do that?!" The virtual avatar's face reddened like a ripe tomato in the middle of summer, and she quickly waved her hand. Instantly, a set of Kunugigaoka Uniform clothes popped out of the back of the monitor. "I'm sorry to trouble you all, but could someone please clothe my physical body?!"

"Alright, alright." Yada stepped forward, picking up the clothes and walking back to the hatch where the body was. She bent down and picked up one of the articles of clothing, and her eyes widened at the black lace lingerie in between her fingers. "…your choice of underwear is quite daring, Ritsu."

"Please ignore that. I had no other kinds of data to reference, so I had to scan through Koro-Sensei's library."

All eyes were on the octopus.

"Don't look at me like that! I didn't intend for her to use the data!" The destroyer of the moon replied in a panic, waving his tentacles back and forth.

 **Five Minutes Later…**

"So, with this in mind, I would like for everyone to help me with my body now that it has been…clothed."

"Help? How?" Nagisa asked curiously. He was very certain that no matter what she asked them for, she could probably do it better than anyone there.

"You see…it is exponentially difficult to gather any data on how to actually operate the body." Ritsu confessed, sighing. "It is a troublesome matter."

"So…you can't use the body yet?" Karma asked, glancing at the pod.

"Yes." Ritsu's avatar nodded. "Thankfully, it has been implanted with a chip in the artificial brain that allows for the body to link to my terminal in a similar manner to Bluetooth."

"That's a very dumbed down, easy-to-understand reference." Maehara muttered, snickering.

"That said, she requires assistance in learning the motor skills required to pilot the body." Koro-Sensei said, gazing at the pod from afar. He'd retreated back to the teacher's podium after a three-minute long assassination attempt earlier after the class had gotten angry. "So, she needs someone to help her, in short."

"Everyone can help her." Isogai replied, glancing back at the pod. "But if you mean for someone to stay with her around the clock, then that's a different story."

"It'd be easier if the girls could take care of it." Maehara commented, one eye closed. "I don't think it's good for a guy to stay around her 24/7. Especially if it's someone like Okajima."

"Hey!" The boy in question objected, but he remained seated.

"Who should take care of it, then? I can't do it." Nakamura sighed, resting her chin on her palm. "I've got some afterschool lessons and studying to take care of."

"I can't, either." Megu added. "I also have some studying to do."

"I don't think it's safe for me to do it." Kaede groaned, and she turned to face Okuda. "How about you do it?"

"I-I can't!" She replied, yelping shyly. "I also have to study, and I'm still developing poisons for Koro-Sensei."

"So, pretty much every girl who should be able to do it can't." Isogai muttered. "And I don't think Koro-Sensei should do it. He might insert more needless data."

The class continued to talk amongst themselves, completely ignoring their teacher's protests.

"…this is turning out to be a bigger problem than I thought it would be." Nakamura muttered, irritated. She messed up her own hair in her aggravation. Her eyes suddenly widened and she pointed her gaze at Nagisa. "Hey, Nagisa. You're, like, the missing link here we need."

"Why am I the missing link?"

"Because you're…y'know, you don't look like a man."

"At least look at me when you're trying to insult me."

"Anyway, that's beside the point." Nakamura replied, pointing at Nagisa. A wicked grin that spelled trouble appeared on her face. "You'll be Ritsu's…maid."

"Wait, why am I the maid?!" Nagisa objected, standing up.

But no one was listening to him anymore.

"Ritsu, quickly! Make a maid outfit, stat!" Nakamura shouted back at the terminal. She dashed over to Okajima's table, stuck her hand into the shelf below it and pulled out a magazine. She flipped through it at lightning speed, stopped at a page and showed it to Ritsu. It was a model picture of a girl wearing a maid outfit. "Something like this!"

"Hang on! Can I at least get a butler uniform?!" Nagisa begged, running over to Nakamura and trying to grab the magazine.

"Here, Ritsu. These are Nagisa's three sizes." Karma says, tossing a piece of paper over to the terminal.

"What the heck are you showing her?!" Nagisa freaked out, balling his fists and yelling at Karma who just stuck his tongue out at Nagisa.

"Roger that, Karma." Ritsu replied, sucking in the paper with a vacuum of air. After a second of silence, she spoke up again. "…why are there nothing but zeroes?"

"No, turn the paper around."

"…Karma, I am capable of unparalleled realtime calculations. With that in mind, do you think I will believe that Nagisa is not a G cup?"

"Don't worry, Ritsu." Karma winked playfully, shooting a mischievous glance at his victim. "Those numbers aren't for his chest. They're for something else."

Everyone immediately threw a Sensei-Knife in Karma's general direction. Nagisa tossed two of them, but he dodged them all with ease.

"Let's put this matter aside for a second." Nagisa said, raising his hand up. "How about we try to teach Ritsu how to use her body, like we're supposed to?"

Everyone nodded and returned their attention to the terminal and the pod.

"So, Ritsu. Can you describe to us what difficulty you're having with your body?" Nagisa asked. He figured that since he'd been more or less forced into the role of a caretaker, he should be active.

"Hmm…attempting to put effort into the body is quite strenuous even with the RAM in my terminal." She confessed, sounding worried. "I think I will have to prioritize the body just to be able to properly attempt using it."

"Alright, then let's try that." Nagisa nodded readily, and he walked over to the pod and close to Ritsu's bio-android body. "Go ahead. Just talk through my phone or something if something happens."

"Affirmative, Nagisa." She said, and the terminal screen powered off.

It was silent. Everyone stared at the female body that lay in the iron casket and waited expectantly. They were all wondering what was gonna happen. If the body would start moving immediately, if she would let out a yawn or something, or whatever.

Nagisa gulped down a bit of saliva when he saw Ritsu's eyes open and focus directly on his own. It sent a strange feeling down his spine, knowing that Ritsu, the Autonomous Thinking Fixed Artillery girl that had been driven by an artificial intelligence up until this point and technically still is driven by one, was staring at him like any normal person would.

Normal had been thrown out of the window the instant the teacher had introduced himself.

He took a step back in reflex when he saw the bio-android's body move for a bit. Her eyelids twitched once before her eyes opened.

Everyone looked at her with expressions of nervousness and wonder.

"Nagisa." The terminal faced the blue-haired androgynous boy, and the display booted up again with the words **Audio Only** on the screen. "I must report to you the state in which my body is in so that you can better assess the situation."

"Um…okay." He nodded, unsure of what else he could possibly say.

"As of now, I am capable of perceiving information through five different information gathering points." She began, and Nagisa couldn't help but feel reminded of a lecture. "The synthetic body can process audio well, so speaking to me and having it understand you will not prove to be any problem."

"Can you speak?" Hara asked, poking the bio-android's cheek. The instant her finger touched Ritsu's artificially reproduced skin, her eyebrows scrunched together. "Whoa, your smooth is so unbelievably smooth and soft!"

"I cannot speak as of now." Ritsu replied. "Unfortunately, I am not accustomed to moving the body as I please. There is very little simulation data to use, so I must force the program to move it as I wish."

"That's alright." Isogai replied, shaking his head. "You'll just have to learn it bit by bit. Come on, try it."

"Affirmative."

Terasaka and Yoshida suddenly burst out laughing, and everyone held back their own chuckle when they saw Ritsu's body move her lips as if it had been injected with a dentist's anesthesia in more than five places.

"Ritsu?" Nagisa asked. "What are you doing?"

"Experimenting with the movement of my lips in order to ascertain my ability to speak."

"Awawarawabuh." A large amount of fluent nonsense proceeded to exit her lips, and Muramatsu joined Yoshida and Terasaka while they fell to their knees and clutched at their stomachs while busting out their extremely obnoxious laughs.

"My apologies for creating such an embarrassing noise." Ritsu apologized.

"Actually…can she feel embarrassment?" Ryuunosuke wondered out loud.

"You fool!" Okajima replied, stomping his foot passionately into the ground and pointed his finger at Ryuunosuke. "Embarrassment is the essence of 2D!"

"…Nagisa." Rtisu's body suddenly spoke with crystal clear precision and enunciation, and everyone's jaw dropped at the suddenness of the change.

"Hey, that's too much of a leap when she didn't know how to talk less than five minutes ago!" Maehara exclaimed in shock, staring at Ritsu.

"Why was her first word your name?!" Okajima just shot a death glare mixed with envy at Nagisa, who took a step away from him when he noticed it.

"You will prove a most capable student in my class in this body, Ritsu." Koro-Sensei gloated, his grin looking boastful with his face now a mixture of yellow and green stripes. "Your learning capabilities are top notch."

"Anyway, we need to teach her like a person if that's how this works." Nagisa said, walking over to the hatch and standing in front of the bio-android. "Ritsu, we're going to try walking next. You'll have to learn this through trial and error, but we're all here to help you."

"See? Appointing Nagisa **was** the right choice." Nakamura remarked, grinning. She glanced at the rest of her classmates, as if urging them to agree with her.

"Yeah, he's really acting the part." Kanzaki agreed, giggling. "Kinda like a dad."

"I shall attempt to have my body move." Ritsu suddenly said, and everyone immediately turned their attention to the pod.

The bio-android's eyes opened wide again, the same light blue as her virtual avatar. After taking a few hesitant blinks, her arm twitched twice before her fingers began clenching and opening.

"Analyzing methodology behind muscle movements…performing required calculations and preparations." Ritsu recited like a mathematician would recite Pi. "Compensating for gravity and weight…"

"She's like a toddler." Sugino muttered as he watched. "A really, really smart toddler."

She suddenly rose into a sitting position and faced Nagisa, her still lips slowly curling into a faint smile. Despite this, it felt surreal for everyone present to hear her speak yet for her physical body's lips to not speak. The audio was still playing from her terminal. "Movement successful. Now attempting to exit-"

As she attempted to clamber out of the steel pod, she suddenly lost her grip and tumbled out of it much to everyone's alarm.

"Ritsu!" Nagisa cried out, managing to catch her and keep her from hitting the floor. "…nice catch" uttered Yoshida as he lowered the hand that he'd lifted out of concern and reflex.

"Damn you, Nagisa!" Okajima wept, tearing apart one of his magazines in despair. "You're triggering all of the flags! Even though you're a trap!"

 _I'm going to ignore that._ Nagisa decided, and he turned his attention back to Ritsu. "Hey, are you-"

It took him that long to realize that several sensations were bombarding him all at once. He'd caught Ritsu in his arms, so they were in a position where her chin was resting on his shoulder. His arms were encircling her waist, and he could feel the back of his head throbbing from making contact with the floor. In that position, however, he could feel the unmistakeable sensation of her smooth and soft skin that was not only in his hands, but was also touching his cheek.

A mix of lavender and lilacs made his brain melt, and he realized that the scent was coming from Ritsu's neck as if her sweat had been mixed with flowers. There was also an extraordinarily soft sensation pressing into his chest, which he was trying his best not to think about.

And above all, beyond the feeling of frailty that he was getting from her body, he sensed a very faint warmth like that of a real person's. It wasn't a feeling he was expecting from an artificially produced synthetic body.

She felt so human that he'd forgotten it for a moment.

The only thing that was processing for him then was the notion that he was embracing a girl in his arms.

And that knowledge only made his face heat and his heartbeat suddenly skip.

"Nagisa, I'm detecting an abnormality in your temperature and your pulse." Ritsu recited, her tone edged with worry. "It has escalated to thirty-eight degrees Celsius, and your heartbeat has reached an estimate of 170 BPM. Are you feeling ill?"

"Whew, it's getting hot in here!" Nakamura sneered mischievously, fanning herself with a textbook. "You go, Nagisa!"

"N-no, I'm fine!" Nagisa stuttered an answer to Ritsu's question, sitting Ritsu up and making distance between them. He scrambled a good two feet away and tried to regain his composure. "…why do you smell like lavender and lilacs, Ritsu?"

Suddenly, a loud thud and the sound of wood splintering startled everyone and forced them to turn in the direction of the noise.

But it was just Okajima standing next to Takebayashi, both of them with their hands slammed into the nearest desk and their heads planted into the wood.

Okajima let out a curse and slammed his fist again, and he sank to his knees. "…dear God, I want to kill him…"

Takebayashi rose back into a standing position, his glasses reflecting what seemed to be so much light that his eyes were rendered unseeable. "…for a real lifer to trigger those kinds of flags…is he even human?"

"To answer your question, Nagisa," Ritsu began, and the rest of the class decided to ignore Okajima and Takebayashi. "I used the information of flowers that I had gathered previously and decided to incorporate them into the body's natural scent. I'd gathered this information via the Light Novels that Koro-Sensei provided for me."

"Aside from the fact that we'll be killing this idiot later, people don't naturally smell like flowers, Ritsu." Karma commented, casually swiping his knife again and again with Koro-Sensei dodging each blow with ease. "Maybe you should change it so that you're not that out of place."

"Affirmative, but I have a lack of data concerning the smell of a human." Ritsu replied worriedly. "Hmm…" Her body suddenly turned to face Nagisa. "Nagisa, I apologize for bothering you, but would you do me a favor by allowing me to copy your scent?"

Never before in his life did the middle-school student turn as bright red as he did that moment.

"W-w-wait, what?! What are you talking about?!" Nagisa stood up and he shook his head and waved his arms simultaneously. "I d-don't think that's a good idea!"

"What's the problem, Nagisa?" Karma suddenly stepped forward, his grin looking so wicked that anyone could describe it as evil. "We're trying to help her out."

"Wouldn't it be better if she got the scent of a girl instead?" Nagisa complained in reply, and he turned to the girls desperately.

"Uh…" Not a single one of them moved to help him. Nakamura just winked in half-sincere apology.

"Anyway, let's get back on topic and leave the scent thing for another time." Nagisa replied, sighing and turning back to Ritsu. "Ritsu, can you try walking? I'll help you out."

"Alright, Nagisa." She nodded cautiously. It really looked like she was trying to get used to the motion of her head moving up an down, as well as everything she was already doing.

She began pushing herself off of the floor, and she slowly and unsteadily rose to her feet. Wobbling a bit, she leaned onto a desk next to her and tried to balance herself. Nagisa walked over to her, preparing his mind and heart as he waited for her to take the few steps forward.

Ritsu took a very cautious step forward, and she suddenly pitched forward so quickly that Nagisa felt himself moving purely by reflex as he caught her by the hand, with his other arm encircling her waist to stop her from falling.

"My, you're bolder than I thought." Nakamura teased, a sly grin on her face that clearly looked like she plotting all sorts of things.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Nagisa cried out in reply, and he helped Ritsu back to her feet. "Here, can you try walking again? I'll hold your hand while you do, so that you can balance more easily."

"Thank you, Nagisa." She said gratefully, smiling radiantly enough to make Okajima bleed tears of joy.

… _even if she is a bio-android, why are her hands so soft? I practically can't tell the difference anymore!_ Nagisa thought to himself as his fingers melded with Ritsu's.

And that marked the first day Student 27 of Class E got herself a body.

In the words of Nagisa Shiota, the transfer student's development has taken an odd turn.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Human Enough

Caretaker.

That became a thing for Nagisa since that day. It actually became a thing, and he ended up becoming the main student to help Ritsu out with her development in her body. With no girls able (or willing) to stay with Ritsu for too long past afterhours, Nagisa had obliged to be the one to stay and talk to her as well as teach her the basic tics of moving, writing and other actions.

After the first day, Nagisa had bade farewell to Ritsu after managing to teach her how to jump with all of the strength her body managed to offer. Of course, she learned quickly, so it got to the point where she was hopping all around the room so joyfully it was heartwarming to watch.

"I'll have to go to the main building to speak with the Principal regarding Ritsu and her new…caretaker." The word had rolled off of Professor Karasuma's tongue like a foreign language, and he had given Nagisa a strange look at the time.

One that was slightly sympathetic, somewhat worried and quite confused at the same time.

And it was already the second day after Ritsu had announced her new body.

Nagisa walked over to the classroom, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he did. He'd been getting up early ever since his unofficial job assignment to greet Ritsu in the morning. Since she had nowhere to go and her original creators shouldn't know about her most recent upgrade, her new body had taken up residence in the classroom.

Simply put, she slept next to her terminal in a mattress provided by the school.

As he walked down the hallway, he glanced from left to right and left again as if he were expecting someone to show themselves. He was also straining his ears, as if he were trying to detect any abnormal sounds.

Nearing the doorway to the classroom, he did hear one. One that made him feel more uncomfortable than he liked to admit.

The very faint, light sound of Ritsu's breathing as she slept.

 _Strange…she's usually up earlier._ Nagisa thought to himself. Ignoring his interest, he pushed the wooden sliding door to the slide as slowly, inconspicuously and quietly as he could.

Inside, he could see the white and blue mattress and blanket on the floor a few feet away from Ritsu's main terminal. And at the end of the mattress, he could see purple hair braids poking out of the blankets. A slow rise and fall from the blanket told Nagisa all he needed to know.

He slowly walked over to his seat, which was inconveniently located on the far side of the room from where Ritsu was sleeping. After he carefully and quietly dumped his belongings in a neat, organized pile onto his desk, Nagisa began to shuffle as silently as humanly possible towards the sleeping Ritsu in an effort not to wake her up too soon.

His effort was wasted when she suddenly sat up so abruptly it was reminiscent of Frankenstein. Nagisa, who had already made it to the point where he was two feet away from her, yelped in surprise and fell onto his rear.

"Were you attempting to surprise me in my sleep, Nagisa?" She asked him with a proud smile on her face. "Unfortunately, I was able to detect you the minute you got in the room."

 _Yeah, no normal human can do that._ Nagisa thought to himself as he stood back up and brushed himself off. "Good morning, Ritsu. Did you sleep well?"

"I have rested my physical body to approximately 95.63% of its full working capacity." Ritsu replied, her voice reciting the calculations very much like Siri. She looked down at herself and then tilted her head as if she were confused about something. "I am unsure why I cannot raise the optimal performance of my body any more than this despite focusing most of my faculties into the body instead of my terminal."

"Maybe it's because you haven't had breakfast." Nagisa replied, smiling in spite of the strange situation and holding out his hand. "A human body needs that to work in the morning, you know."

"Breakfast…" Ritsu peered around the classroom vacantly, at a loss for what to do next. "…there is no viable way for me to procure a proper meal at this time of the day in this location."

"Which is why I had to get up early to make this." Nagisa replied, jogging back to his bag and then running back to her. He placed a small packed lunchbox onto Ritsu's new student desk. "Come on, before it gets too cold."

He walked over to her and offered a hand to her. She took it and stood up, allowing the blanket to fall away from her body-

-and reveal her in lingerie.

In that instant, Nagisa's face immediately flushed as the blood went to his head and his face. He quickly spun around on his heel and faced the other way, touching his chest as he felt his heart speed up. "R-Ritsu! Wh-why are you wearing t-t-that?!"

She looked down at her apparel and frowned. "I had the feeling that this might have been improper."

"Th-then why did you wear it to sleep?!"

"Nakamura told me that it was good to sleep in one's underwear for the sake of improving comfort. Karma vouched for it as well."

 _Those two…_

He felt like hitting any one of them, but one was too dangerous to try it with and the other would just tease him non-stop even if he did. In fact, if he did anything, they would just make life worse for him.

So he decided, albeit he thought about it hard, to just give up and let it pass.

"Anyway, that aside, Ritsu," He fought against the natural compulsion he grew up with that was turning around and facing the person he was speaking to. "Can't you put on some more clothes? You'll…catch a cold."

"I have no other clothes to change into." Ritsu replied, troubled. "Nakamura said that she would bring something for me to change into before classes begin."

"I hope that she comes quickly, then." Nagisa muttered, forcing himself to bear the sight as he turned around and offered his hand out to help her up a second time. "Come on, eat some breakfast."

He did his absolute best not to look at her as she took his hand and got to her feet. But as much as he tried, his young male eyes couldn't help but absorb the sight of any girl his age in crumpled, messy lingerie.

She was wearing a slightly transparent pink one piece brassiere that stopped right at her hips, and the wrinkles she gathered from sleeping only served to make her look even more provocative. She was even wearing a matching lacy panty to match her upper body's attire.

Just a single, momentary glance was enough to make his heart skip and his blood pump faster, so he looked away as soon as Ritsu got up.

 _This is really going to be a bother, in a lot of ways._

* * *

"So, how was this morning, Nagisa?"

"Leave me alone, Karma." Nagisa muttered, already mentally tried and drained from a few minutes ago. The blue-haired middle school student had his body slumped forward and his cheek against his desk. He shifted so that his face looked in the opposite direction and away from the red-haired troublemaker who was standing next to his table with an all-knowing grin on his face. "I've already had enough."

"Aww, what's the problem? Karma asked, his tone clearly trying to gaud him. "You saw a girl in such a state. I'm surprised you're not happy."

"Zip it." Nagisa retorted, sighing heavily.

In the background, Okajima was glaring with irises of glowing fire at Nagisa that were clearly burning with envy. Next to him was Takebayashi, who was eyeing Nagisa in a similar fashion

"Is he still sulking?" Nakamura asked as she glanced over at the two boys. She stood up from her seat and walked over to them, leaning on Kayano's desk so that Nagisa was facing her. "Come on, we apologized, didn't we?"

Nagisa just closed his eyes, and he spoke again. This time, it was painfully obvious he was getting more and more pissed. "Apologies do not equal forgiveness, Nakamura."

"Yikes, he's really mad." Nakamura clicked her tongue and rustled his hair, sighing. "Fine, fine. I'll do whatever you want later, so just forgive me already, okay?"

Nagisa just grunted in reply and shifted his head again, this time so that his forehead was directly against the wood of the table.

"…um, Nagisa?"

The voice belonged to Ritsu, and Nagisa turned around to see her standing next to him with a meek expression on her face. She was wearing a Kunugigaoka school uniform issued on short notice by the school to make up for her lack of clothing.

She turned away, her eyes fixed on the floor. "Um…I apologize for my actions this morning. It appears that I upset you greatly."

"No, no, not at all!" Nagisa got to his feet in a flustered mess, and then pointed at Karma and Nakamura. "If it weren't for these two, you wouldn't have done that in the first place!"

"…um…thank you for being angry on my behalf." Ritsu bowed, and then smiled brightly. "And also for the breakfast you made for me this morning. It was very delicious."

Before Nagisa could even to try a nervous _you're welcome_ , Ritsu skipped forward and then hugged him tightly.

Of course, this prompted a heart-crushing squeal from Okajima followed by tears of blood to begin streaming from his face. The rest of the class simply reacted with gasps and looks of surprise.

"Ri-Ri-Ri-Ri-Ritsu?!" Nagisa, caught completely off guard, could only look at the young girl embracing his chest. "Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!"

"Eh?" She only looked up at him obliviously, and from such a close distance that it only served to make Nagisa even more flustered. "But Karma said that hugs were a form of gratitude. Is that not right as well?"

"W-well, it's not like they can't be used that way…" Nagisa shot a glare at his friends, who simply winked devilishly and escaped back to his chair. He turned his attention back to the purple-haired girl and placed his hand on her shoulders, and then effectively forced her to let go of him. "Anyway, I got it, so let go of me alrea-"

"Nagisa."

The sound of Professor Karasuma's voice made him turn around, alert. The P.E teacher walked through the doorway, his mere presence already making the students hush as they turned to see what he was doing. Karasuma stopped in front of Nagisa, who was looking at him with a curious and respectful look on his face. "Yes, Professor Karasuma?"

"The arrangements have been made with your family and with the school for you to stay here at the satellite campus with Ritsu for her development."

"…wait, what?"

Karasuma's tone became mixed with a slight tint of confusion. "I thought that you were decided to be the caretaker of Ritsu 24/7 until she learns to take care of herself efficiently. So I spoke with your family and the principal, saying that you needed to stay at the satellite campus for certain academic reasons." Karasuma sighed, and then placed his hand onto his forehead. He was clearly exasperated, and his grimace was as if an unpleasant memory came to mind. "Do you have any idea how it feels to get looked at by that principal with a pity-filled gaze that clearly says _you must have it hard_ and try not to comment on it?"

Immediately after he said that, everyone in the class dropped onto their knees. "WE ARE NOT WORTHY?!"

Except for Ritsu, who was staring at everyone like an alien had dropped from the sky and introduced himself as a fan of Drew Barrymore. "What are you all doing?" Her stare wandered from person to person, and then fixed onto Koro-Sensei, who was also groveling. "Even you, Koro-Sensei? What's going on?"

"Quick, bow!" Sugino cried out, his eyes looking really wild for some reason Ritsu couldn't identify. "You're the biggest reason behind this, so bow! Now!"

Needless to say, Ritsu had no idea what had just happened.

* * *

 **After School Ended…**

"Man, that was tiring." Nagisa groaned in exhaustion, slumping forward onto his desk for a second time. He let out a sigh, sleepiness trying to already overtake his consciousness.

"Good work, holding out after all that." Kayano replied, laughing. "You must really be exhausted."

"Yeah, that's right." Nagisa muttered in agreement, not even bothering to look at Kayano. After the morning's events coupled with classes, he couldn't even be bothered to lift a pencil.

Right now, everyone was already getting up and getting ready to go home. Student after student grouped up and got into conversation, and then walked out of the room. Their numbers drained fast, with more than half of the class already gone.

"Nagisa, please come with me!" Koro-Sensei's voice emanated from behind the screen door of the classroom that led into the hallway. "Ritsu, I will need to speak with Nagisa regarding some matters first, so please wait in the classroom until I send him back."

"Yes, Koro-Sensei!" She called out obediently while Nagisa groaned and dragged himself to his feet.

As Nagisa exited the room, Ritsu just began packing her stuff into her new schoolbag while humming to herself the whole time.

"Terasaka! Let's go!" Yoshida's loud cry caught her attention. It was loud enough for the whole room to hear, anyway.

"Yeah, yeah! Wait your ass in the hall for a sec!" He yelled back, clearly as irritated as he usually seemed. He growled and hefted his bag onto his shoulder, and then began shuffling grumpily towards the exit.

"Yo, Terasaka. Lemme ask you a quick question!" Okajima's voice was unmistakable as soon as Terasaka disappeared from view. They were chatting in the hallway. Okajima just clasped his hands together, an idiotically happy smile on his face. "What do you think of the new Ritsu? She's totally cute, isn't she?! Not like a bucket of bolts anymore, huh?"

"Tch." Terasaka clicked his tongue and walked past the semi-bald pervert, letting out a heavy sigh. "I don't give a damn about it. She's still a program the octopus messed with. Don't get it wrong, you knucklehead." He pointed through the wall in the direction of Ritsu and her terminal. "The only thing that's changed is that she's got a body. But she's still not a human. She's not like us. She's a machine, and she can turn back to what her makers wanted her to be at the press of a button."

"Well, they tried that, and she ended up defying them of their own free will, right?" Okajima suddenly pointed out. "You're wrong about that."

"…" Terasaka clicked his tongue a second time and then continued walking, since he'd stopped to hear Okajima's objection.

… _human…_ Ritsu thought, the word lingering in her thoughts.

"Ritsu."

She'd found herself gazing at the wooden flooring, but the sound of Nagisa's voice made her lift her head to face him. He was suddenly standing in front of her, as if he'd teleported into existence.

"Oh, Nagisa." She moved to stand up from her chair.

"…you alright? You spaced out until everyone was gone." Nagisa asked, his voice colored with worry.

Ritsu looked around to see that he was right. The room was completely vacant now. They were the only two occupants now.

"I-I'm sorry." She said, standing up and pushing her chair back into the desk. "I will prepare the room for me to sleep."

"Actually…about that."

Nagisa cut her off, and Ritsu peered at him with an expression of interest.

He continued. "…since I'm your caretaker and all, I've been given permission to stay the night. But…since there isn't anywhere else to go, I'm gonna have to do it here."

"…" Ritsu slowly caught onto what he was insinuating. "…so, in other words, you're going to….spend the night in the same room as me?"

The blue-haired middle-school student nodded quietly in response, avoiding her gaze like the plague in a humid forest. Nagisa couldn't hide the awkwardness he was feeling about telling her this himself.

"Well, we'll have to request for another mattress for you, I suppose." Ritsu said without any further hesitation, and she turned around to her terminal. "I'll get in contact with Professor Karasuma and obtain one for you."

"Uh, th-thanks." Nagisa replied, gratefully out of habit.

… _is something bothering her?_ Nagisa wondered as she strolled out of the classroom.

 _Her face…she never made a face like that before._

"Ritsu, you should have no arguments regarding this arrangement, right?" Nagisa called out to her from the other side of the room.

The two had been arranging the classroom for quite some time, trying to agree on how they should sleep since there were no other rooms to sleep in within the satellite campus aside from the teachers' rooms, which were so small and cramped enough as it was that it made sleeping look impossible.

So, they'd pushed the tables and chairs to the sides of the room in a similar way to the arena that Itona had made when he challenged Koro-Sensei to a duel.

At Nagisa's feet was the spare mattress that they'd managed to procure. It was an old-looking, battered and worn out mattress that looked in need of repair. He'd placed it as far as he could from Ritsu's mattress, which was at the far end of the room near her terminal, so he was close to the teacher's desk.

"Hmm…won't you be uncomfortable there?" Ritsu asked, worried as she pointed at the table next to him. "Koro-Sensei's desk is quite close to you. You may strike it and wake up in the middle of the night."

She then pointed towards the middle of the classroom, a few feet from her own mattress. "Why not just place our mattresses next to each other? Like I said earlier, it is the most logical decision by way of space conservation."

 _The logic isn't wrong, but…_ Nagisa tried his best not to let his thoughts show on his face. _…I guess she doesn't know that much about common sense. She's an AI who just got a physical body despite living in the two-dimensional one._

 _And besides…_ He looked up to fix his eyes on Ritsu, but her face wasn't wearing the cheerful smile she normally was.

It looked like she was almost clinging onto something. She didn't seem desperate, but it looked like she was getting there.

He gave up, slumping forward. "You know what, you're right. Move the mattress again. I'll place mine next to you."

At that, her face lit up like a bonfire at a high-school summer festival.  
"Okay then!"

 _Why does it make you so happy?_ Nagisa wondered, all thoughts of embarrassment giving way to concern. In the instant he had finally surrendered to her insistence, Ritsu's half-concealed somberness had disappeared in a flash.

As they pushed the mattresses together, Nagisa glanced at the window by chance and smiled without thinking. "…it's already night, huh?"

And night it was. The misshapen crescent moon was shining dimly in the dark blue night sky, surrounded by gorgeous twinkling stars. The pale blue moonlight illuminated the room through the window, painting the brown wooden floor with an elegant, sleep-inducing shade of aquamarine.

"So it seems." Ritsu replied, exhaling her breath in a show of admiration. "…it's far more beautiful than any rendering software available to me."

Nagisa let out a laugh at that. "Yeah, you can only get this experience in a human body like yours."

He froze when he noticed that Ritsu's expression had saddened yet again. _Was it something I said?_

"…uh, Ritsu?" Nagisa sat down onto his mattress and stared at her. "…is something bothering you?"

"…yes, there is." She nodded, her face downcast as she sat down onto the mattress across from him.

"What is it?" He asked, leaning forward.

"…earlier today, I overheard Terasaka's opinion on my new body." Ritsu placed a hand on her forearm and averted her gaze from Nagisa, her eyes on the floorboards. "…he said he didn't consider me as a human." Her fingers slowly balled together. "That I am just…a program that Koro-Sensei modified on a whim for the sake of nothing but amusement."

 _Terasaka, damn it._ Nagisa cursed in his mind, clenching his fist as he did. _Stop treating her like she's some object!_

"So…it has come to make me question several things. The most prominent being this strange sensation I have here." Ritsu placed her hand onto her chest, looking down at it like there was some sort of abnormal tumor growing there. "To accurately describe it is difficult for even my enhanced language processors and dictionary references. It is…an unpleasant feeling."

"…Ritsu, I'll tell you something that might save you some time in the future." Nagisa said, smiling at her. "…feelings aren't something you understand by thinking too hard about. And they can't be calculated, and they can't even be fully understood. Not even by humans themselves."

"Feelings." Ritsu repeated the word like it was a whole new term she'd never heard of before, and she met eyes with Nagisa. "…feelings are indescribable?"

"Well…yeah."

"Then how do humans go on living with something they can't fully understand?" She asked. "How can they continue to live with these…feelings?"

"We just do, Ritsu." He said, smiling. "Every moment, we feel something. Happiness, sadness, anger, resentment, hatred…there are so many kinds of feelings and an endless combination of which ones can be felt at the same time. That's just how humans are."

He placed his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. It was the only way he was sure he could reassure her with more than just words without completely embarrassing himself. "What Terasaka says isn't true, Ritsu. Not in the slightest."

"How so?" She asked him intently. "How could he be wrong when, in a way, he is correct?"

"Well…you felt something, didn't you?" He said, and he pointed to her heart. "If you feel something here, then that means you're human. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from or even what you're made of." He pointed at her heart a second time, smiling. "If you have feelings, then you're not a program. You're human enough for me, at least."

"…thank you, Nagisa." Ritsu's saddened, somber smile was completely gone and replaced with a brilliant, relieved smile that was so radiant and pure that just looking at it made Nagisa's heart skip a beat. She took the hand that was still pointed at her heart with both hands and then placed it over her chest. "I think that I felt happy when you said that."

She looked up at him, very faint traces of tears in her eyes. "Is this what it feels like? This warmth that fills my whole body? Or is it my heart that's beating so quickly?"

Nagisa felt his own heart stop beating and his pulse roar and thump like a forest of trees were being cut down and striking his chest one by one in quick succession.

"Y-YEAH, IT'S LIKE THAT!" Panicked and clueless on anything else to do, Nagisa quickly pulled his hand away from her chest and turned around to face away from her. He cleared his throat to try and ease the mood that he'd created. "N-now, we should get some sleep for tomorrow morning."

"Alright, then. I will retire as well." Ritsu replied, and she quickly slipped under her blanket. "Good night, Nagisa."

"G-good night, Ritsu." He turned around to see her with her back facing him and her shoulders rising up and down, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

 _Man, that was nerve-wracking. She really does think nothing of sleeping next to a boy._

He slipped his blanket on, a shiver running down his back as he tried his best to close his eyes and sleep.

… _whew, it's cold…_

* * *

"…mrgh…"

Ritsu opened her groggy eyes and was greeted with the sight of the classroom.

… _it's cold…_

She closed her eyes again and rolled over in her sleep and then tried to close off all the airways in her blanket by curling up, but she could still feel a chill in her body.

Continuing to roll over to her left, she suddenly felt a warmth close to her hands. She reached out and pursued it, and then began to inch closer and closer to it. Half-asleep, she dragged herself over to the source of warmth until it was right next to her.

… _it's unexpectedly soft…_

Finding that she could place her arms around the source of warmth, she did so and brought it to her skin. The sensation of heat passed through her cheeks and her hands, and she felt it lull her back into the realm of dreams yet again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Classmates

Morning came like it usually did. In fact, it was a very pleasant one. The weather was absolutely perfect, with white clouds scattered across the blue sky and no grey ones in sight for leagues. The wind was just as flawless, the cool breeze a gentle stroke to the skin.

The cliché of chirping birds was also present, since the satellite campus was all the way up in the mountains.

… _mm…_

Nagisa suddenly felt his consciousness slowly come to him, and he opened his eyes ever so slowly. His jaws forcibly widened as he yawned involuntarily, sleepy as he still was. But it was a pleasant awakening, what he had just gone through. The kind that would definitely be accompanied by a flute or a piano in the movies.

As he tried to make his groggy body move, he managed to drag himself into a sitting position. He took a drowsy look around the classroom, letting the information sink into his brain.

 _Oh yeah, wasn't it really cold?_ He suddenly remembered the chill he'd felt last night, and he touched his earlobes with his fingers self-consciously. _…but I'm really warm. I slept really well, so I guess it was just a cold breeze or something._

The sound of the sliding door opening made Nagisa's eyes jump up, and he turned to see a number of familiar faces, all his classmates, staring at him like he'd run over a deer.

 _They're already here?_ Nagisa thought to himself, and he glanced at the clock above the blackboard. _Why are they here so early?_

It read 8:15.

 _Crap, I overslept!_ Nagisa realized, his heart plummeting. _I need to get ready and-?!_

"N-N-Nagisa?!" Kayano's face was cherry red as she pointed at him, unable to do anything but stutter. "Wh-wh-wh-wh-wha-!?"

Karma's grin became a demonic sneer as he whipped out his phone camera and began snapping pictures like a hungry journalist. "Not bad for the first night. Am I right, Nagisa?"

And behind them, Okajima was repeatedly slamming his head into the satellite campus' floor as he tried to rein in a string of curses that would have gotten him expelled. " #&*#^$%$&#* ^ &_#!"

"What are you-?"

Suddenly, he heard a feminine voice let out a groan right next to him. Immediately after, he felt a soft object press itself into his side.

 _What is this?!_ Nagisa turned to face his side, only to feel even more surprise blow up in his face.

Ritsu was there, lying next to him, with her hands around his waist and her body making contact with his.

As if sleeping next to him wasn't the only issue, her clothes looked messed up. Her pink pajama top was partially unbuttoned, revealing the purple underwear that she was wearing underneath. Her bottom, on the other hand, was disheveled and looked like she was just about to take them off before she fell asleep.

"N-Nagisa…you're a frightful one…" Hinata muttered, a hand over her mouth as she took a step back in wariness.

"Y-you've got the wrong idea!" Nagisa waved his arms around like helpless livestock, hoping he could somehow prove his point. "I didn't do anything! She probably moved around a lot while she was sleeping."

"Moved around…huh?" Karma glanced at the other side of the room, where Ritsu's mattress was. He looked back to Nagisa and then winked. "Yeah, I'm sure she was moving around a lot last night~"

"What do you mean by that?" Karma grinned even wider, looking like the splitting image of Lucifer. "We don't know what you mean by that. Why don't you tell us exactly what's going through your mind, Nagisa?"

 _KARMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!_ At that moment, Nagisa wanted nothing more than Karma's mouth to be subjected to the adhesive wonders of duct tape. "I'm telling you guys, that's not what happened!"

"Nagisa, my audio receptors are giving me painful feedback…"

"Ritsu!" Nagisa turned again to the now-awake purple-haired girl that was rubbing the drowsiness out of her eyes. "Thank goodness you're awake!" He pointed at the crowd of students that was still standing in the doorway. "Can you please tell them what happened last night?! They think we did something I know we didn't!"

Ritsu looked at Nagisa blankly for a few moments, and then looked down at herself. "…why am I in your mattress, Nagisa?"

"In her sleep? Nagisa, you bastard…" Takebayashi muttered, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "2D must always be consensual."

"I'm telling you that's not what happened!" Nagisa retorted again, and then returned his attention to Ritsu, the only lifeline he had left in the situation.

"Ritsu, come over here." Fuwa made a gesture of _come here_ with her hands to Ritsu. "We can't have you next to that scum."

Completely unaware of the current situation and ignoring Nagisa's protests, she staggered to her feet and stumbled over to Fuwa and Yada, who helped her stand upright.

"Now…I hope you're ready, Nagisa." Okajima suddenly let out a growl, holding a pair of Anti-Sensei pistols in his hands. "You're about to claim responsibility for deflowering Ritsu!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Nagisa, now faced with no other option but to brace himself, quickly got to his feet in preparation to bolt for his life.

"Ah!" Ritsu suddenly let out a sound and turned to Nagisa. "Nagisa, I remember!"

 _Thank god, she's gonna bail me out!_ Nagisa let out a sigh of relief and nodded, a gesture for Ritsu to continue. "Yeah, go on."

But to his shock, Ritsu bowed her head to him. "Thank you for last night." And then, to everyone's surprise, she averted her gaze. "Also…you're very warm…"

It took a moment for those words to sink in.

Right after, however, it was chaos.

Maehara let out a whistle and winked at Nagisa, pointing his finger at him. "Your first time's in middle school?! Not bad, bud!"

"Are you serious?! Nagisa, the girly boy, became a man?!" Nakamura let out that appalled cry, her hands on her head. "Impossible!"

Everyone chose to ignore the shrieks of burning envy that came from Okajima, who was carving lines into the wooden wall with his fingernails. "OH MY GOD!"

"Ritsu, what are you talking about?!" Nagisa asked, already sweating in fear as the class advanced on him with pellet guns at the ready and Karma leading the line with a satisfied grin.

Ritsu just tilted her head like she had no idea what he was talking about before she was ushered out of the room by Kayano and Fuwa. The bloodbath began afterwards.

* * *

 **Later, that same day…**

"Professor Karasuma?" Kayano said, caught off guard as she saw the sliding door of the classroom open from her peripherals.

The students were confused when they turned their heads, overhearing Kayano's exclamation. The sight of the agent from the government slowly caught everyone's attention, and they hushed into quiet and turned to face him. Some got in their seats since they were still standing up, and other students were facing the other way, so they had to turn around to face them.

"Good morning, everyone." The sharp-looking young man greeted them with his usual air of formality as he stood behind the teacher's desk. "I have an announcement to make regarding your classes. Your P.E subject material is going to change for the next few days."

Everyone tilted their head questioningly when he said that.

"Why are we changing it?" Isogai raised his hand and waited for Karasuma to call him before he asked, clearly concerned. "Did the school find issues in our curriculum?"

"No, it's nothing as worrying as that." Karasuma reassured him. "Actually, there were a number of requests from the main campus' student body to hold a second Sports Festival. And this time, Class E will be a participant like the other classes."

"Don't tell me they're being bitter about losing to Class E in that game." Terasaka let out a hostile sigh, sounding like he was read to break a skull. "That was all their idea."

"Regardless of the intent that the students had when they petitioned for it, the administrative staff of the school have debated about it and decided to let it pass." Karasuma closed his eyes and made an exasperated expression mixed with a wry smile. "Well, I had also observed the game myself, so I had spoken with the Principal after they notified us of the decision. He has made promises not to directly interfere in the affairs of the students."

"…well, if it will be fair, then that's fine, I guess…?" Megu trailed off, leaning back in her chair, looking troubled.

"It's okay." Karma said, his tone clear from the back. No one needed to look at him to hear the bloodlust in his voice. He twirled his Anti-Sensei knife in his fingers, spinning it like any normal boy would a pen. "If he does it again, then we'll just beat him and his Class A cronies again.

"I'm glad to see your spirits are all high." Karasuma said, nodding in approval at the sight of Class E's signature healthy bloodlust. "The target has allowed us to take some of his class periods in order to allow you all to practice for the next festival, so let's all move to the field outside and begin immediately."

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

"Are you okay, Ritsu?"

Yada held out a hand to the girl that was on her knees and struggling to catch her breath. The two of them were in their P.E uniforms, standing in the middle of a track and field path that Koro-Sensei had taken the liberty of carving out for Class E upon request.

"I'm…fine. I'm just…out of breath." She panted, trying her best to stand up. She had noticeably weakened, unable to catch her breath and unable to stand up. She bent over, bracing herself against her knees as she tried to regain her oxygen.

Megu, seeing Ritsu and Yada stopping in the middle of the track, jogged over to them and stopped as well, stretching her arm out as she peered at Ritsu. "Well, I wouldn't blame her. We've had a nonstop load of P.E subjects for the past few days." She retraced her arm, patted her on the back and then took her by the hand and helped her up to her feet. "You're not used to your new body yet, right? Must be rough."

"Yes…" Ritsu trailed off, her reply unsteady. "I think my body is having problems keeping up. I don't have enough information to move it the way I want to during class."

"I think what she's trying to say…is that she hasn't practiced enough?" Yada tilted her head, looking at Megu as if she were asking her to translate.

"I think so…" Megu agreed uncertainly, scratching her head. "Well, the first thing to do is get you some rest." She then took Ritsu's arm over her shoulder and helped Ritsu to her feet. "Don't worry, we'll talk to Professor Karasuma later for you. Just get some rest."

"Ah…mm." Ritsu nodded hesitantly as her friends slowly led her off of the track course. As she staggered and limped, she cast her gaze out to the other side.

The boys were showing no signs of stopping their jogging despite their pace, which was capable of matching that of junior bodybuilders. Some were farther ahead and some lagged behind, but most shared a similar pace. Karma was at the lead, jogging casually without looking like he was breaking a sweat at all. He even had his hands in his pockets, which seemed strange to Ritsu seemed it was bad form to jog like that.

Behind him was Terasaka, who looked like he'd been doing this all his life. His face was completely passive as if he were sitting in the classroom, his arms tucked in and his fingers clenched. And despite his conservative form, he was beating Okajima and Isogai easily.

Ritsu's eyes filtered through the line of males until she stopped at Nagisa, who was one of the ones lagging behind. True to his androgynous form, he wasn't keeping up well along with the rest of the guys.

 _I don't have what it takes to keep up_. After assessing her physical ability just now, her flawless logical reasoning had left her with that conclusion.

And yet, Ritsu didn't accept that as her answer. She didn't want to.

She couldn't understand why. She knew that it was the only thing she conclude.

Yet she didn't want to.

The words that Terasaka had said to her came back in a vivid flash of memory, one that swept Ritsu's consciousness away from reality as if she had been transported back to the classroom in a vision.

 _I'm…just a machine._ Ritsu felt her chest constrict unpleasantly, and she placed her hand on it as if to massage it away. It was a sensation she couldn't comprehend, a feeling that made her sag her shoulders and hang her head.

That feeling persisted as Yada and Megu opened the door to the classroom. They waddled over to her desk and sat her down, letting out a loud breath of relief as they did. "Ah, finally~!"Yada breathed out in relief.

"Just stay here first, okay? Wait for the rest of the class to come back." Megu said, patting Ritsu on her shoulder before she and Yada walked out of the room. With a friendly wave and a smile, the two girls closed the sliding door, leaving Ritsu alone in the room.

Ritsu leaned back into her chair, opening the window next to her a bit to let the air inside. She felt the warm, kind sunlight hitting her skin and the cool wind gently brushing against her cheek, all sensations that she'd never really gotten to experience in her time spent as a three-dimensional sprite. She felt a smile spread her lips a bit, and she closed her eyes to let the feeling of the cool breeze drown her.

She opened her eyes again, letting the view of the forest soothe her and the bright blue sky calm her. Slowly, over time, her heart rate decreased and her breathing steadied until she was normal once again.

And as her lungs rested, her mind wandered back to her somber, depressed thoughts. Merely remembering Terasaka's words made Ritsu bite her lip and her eyes squint, and she gripped the wooden desk in front of her with her hand. The confusing constriction in her chest that she didn't really understand returned, and Ritsu now recognized it as the same feeling she had felt the previous day.

 _Is this…what sadness feels like?_ Ritsu's new brain was processing everything she was feeling, and she began to piece things together. Looking through every expanse of the internet left her with a multitude of information from depressed people and medical experts that all left her with the conclusion that what she was experiencing was indeed sadness.

The constricting, unpleasant feeling in her chest.

The sting in her eyes.

"Ritsu?"

Nagisa's familiar voice turned Ritsu's head in the direction of the door. He stood there, his hand on the halfway opened sliding door. The middle-schooler wore a slightly hesitant, concerned look on his face as he inched a bit more. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes, I'm well." Ritsu responded, not wanting him to worry too much about her. The conversation at an end, Ritsu's eyes immediately averted from the boy.

Nagisa wordlessly opened the door wider and walked inside, closing it behind him. He walked over to her and took the closest vacant seat, which was Karma's. Sitting down it a little cautiously as if he were wary of any tricks or traps that might have been laid there, he laid his rear onto the wooden seat before focusing back on Ritsu.

But he said nothing. He just looked at her. Scrutinizing her expression with calm, open eyes, Nagisa did nothing but look at her.

 _What is he…?_ Ritsu wasn't too uncomfortable with the staring, since she had a lot on her mind and wasn't really focused on it anyway. But since he was right in front of her, it was easy to see him looking at her intently. _Why…?_

"…if there's something bothering you, you can tell me." Nagisa offered suddenly, his mouth curving into a caring, warm smile. "I'm kinda responsible for you now, so…" He said embarrassedly, scratching his cheek with his finger.

"Nagisa…" Ritsu smiled in return, feeling thankful for his kindness. She felt something like a weight being lifted from her chest, as if her recently manufactured heart had been released from invisible shackles. "…today, I had trouble trying to keep up with everyone during Physical Education."

"Mm." Nagisa nodded as he listened. He decided to tell her that he'd been paying attention and watching her as he'd been running.

"And…it makes me think about my ability as a human." Ritsu proceeded, looking down at her body. She placed her hands onto her stomach and chest like she were checking for something. "I…I'm not adept at using this body very well. I'm not human, so-"

"You're wrong." Nagisa cut her off sharply, surprising Ritsu. He shook his head. "You're human. Remember that." He made a thumbs-up sign with his hand and pressed the tip of his thumb against his left breast. "It's what's here that counts, remember?"

Ritsu looked down and placed her hand onto her chest, and the sensation of her heartbeat sent shivers down her fingers. "…what's here…huh?"

"Anyway, if it's your body, then I can help you." Nagisa replied.

Ritsu tilted her head questioningly since she didn't understand what he meant by that. "Help me?"

A voice suddenly cut through their conversation. "Why don't you explain to her what you mean by that, Nagisa?"

Nagisa sighed the instant Karma's voice sailed into the air. "Karma, give it a rest. We just had P.E."

Karma walked into the room with his signature devilish smirk, his hands in his pockets like usual. He strode over to the pair, and then slung his arm over Nagisa's shoulders and leaned on him. However, his attention was focused on Ritsu. "If you want, we can help you out after class with P.E." He then raised his hand and then patted Nagisa on the top of his head with it. "Well, most of the time, it'll be this guy, though."

"H-Help me?" Ritsu's eyes twinkled with surprise and eagerness, and she almost stood up in her excitement. "Really?"

"Sure, I don't see a problem with it." Karma replied, grinning. "Everyone else thinks so, too." He raised his other hand up and then made a _come here_ gesture with his hand.

However, it faced the direction of the door. Ritsu didn't understand why, and she tilted her head, mystified.

But she realized the meaning behind that when Isogai, Megu and a number of her other fellow classmates peered in with smiles all on their faces.

"If you have problems, you can always come to us." Isogai said with a perfect smile that would charm any normal girl, letting out a laugh as he did.

"Don't give her that smile, you pretty boy. You look like you're going to take credit for it all." Megu replied, knocking him on his forehead with her knuckles.

"We'll all help you out, so don't worry about a thing!" Hinata flashed a thumbs-up along with her wide grin.

 _Everyone…_ Ritsu smiled a genuine, extremely happy smile that was accompanied by a tear. "…thank you, everyone. I cannot find any words in my database to describe my thanks."

"You'd better find the words quick, 'cuz you have him to thank." Karma pushed down on Nagisa's head harder, smiling nonchalantly the whole time. "He came to us and asked us for help."

"No, I didn't really do anything." Nagisa said sheepishly, laughing. "Besides, all I did was ask Karasuma to allow us to use the equipment and ask the school for permission."

"Nagisa…thank you for being so thoughtful." Ritsu got up and hugged him sincerely, her arms tightly embracing Nagisa.

Takebayashi just pushed his glasses further up his nose and let out a breath. "Nagisa…you know how to manage your flags. I applaud you."

"Takebayashi, shut up!"

* * *

"They're working hard for her sake." Professor Karasuma muttered, smiling. He stood directly outside the door, listening in on the conversation.

"I'm so proud to have them as my students." Koro-Sensei, who was standing beside the black-haired man while wearing bloomers, said endearingly with his tentacles pushing against one another like fingers. "I was a little worried about Ritsu's physical adjustment, but I'd placed my hopes on Nagisa and the rest to help her through all of this."

"So you planned this?" Karasuma replied with a question, but there was no trace of hostility or suspicion. Just plain curiosity and a little bit of amazement.

"You see, Karasuma…a class is supposed to be a family." Koro-Sensei said, his smile never wavering. He shot a single glance inside the classroom, pleased at the sight of his students laughing and talking, planning for Ritsu's after-school training regimen. "And in this classroom, where they are discriminated against as a whole and they learn through knives and bullets, that bond is important to them. It is something that we, as teachers, have the duty to nurture and protect."

Karasuma listened intently. The words coming from his own target were ringing true with him, and they made him form a very slightly smile on his otherwise usually passive expression.

"My students form bonds not only as classmates who share a daily routine, but as assassins who share their bloodlust together. They accept one another's weaknesses, support one another with their strengths and learn to live life to the fullest alongside one another." Koro-Sensei laughed. It was not the mischievous, perverted laugh of the octopoid superbeing that could destroy the world at a moment's notice while picking out a new set of outfits for AKB48, but it was instead the proud laugh of a teacher. "It is the only thing I am grateful to this academy for: to meet such wonderful students and to watch them become great people. The sense of discrimination against Class E has fostered a powerful sense of camaraderie that cannot be achieved in almost any other way."

"…she will become a threat to your life. Greater than any other threat you've ever faced." Karasuma said, his smile still present. "Are you still going to cultivate her talent?"

"You, too, are a teacher now. You know what my answer would be." Koro-Sensei said snidely, and he walked past Karasuma down the hall. "Teachers are the lifeblood of humanity. Their job is to teach people how to live their life, so it is only natural that they must put their lives on the line for their students."

… _life on the line, huh?_ Karasuma turned around, nodding once to the yellow octopus. "Then there is no need to answer me."

Koro-Sensei displayed his usual laugh as he rubbed his hand-tentacle-fingers together. "Now, if you will excuse me, I must pop over to France and buy a few croissants and macarons. Is there a souvenir you would like, Professor Karasuma?"

"Hmm…if you could die on the way, that'd be great."

"Nurufufufufufu~ If only it were that easy, right?"

* * *

 **Three Hours Later…**

Ritsu let out a massive breath of exhaustion, falling onto her knees and hands as the lack of energy in her body finally got to her.

"Okay, I think that's enough for tonight." Nagisa muttered worriedly. He rushed over to Ritsu's side and began wiping her sweat away with a towel. "You should get some rest."

"Thanks…hahh…Nagisa…" Ritsu thanked him breathlessly, trying to get the air back into her lungs.

Nagisa stood back up as Ritsu took her time to recover, admiring the crescent moon's pale light as it struck the field they stood in. "We should probably head back inside and eat. I'm sure you're hungry now."

Ritsu blushed in embarrassment as her stomach let out a timely growl of hunger. "…but we don't have any food in the whole campus."

"Don't worry, Isogai and the others left us something." Nagisa replied reassuringly. "I left it in the fridge that Itona made for us."

"…everyone's been helping us, one way or another."

Nagisa smiled when he saw Ritsu's expression. Her eyes were filled with thanks and gratitude, and her lips touched with a small little grin of warm, gentle happiness. It made him feel relieved. It had bothered him that she'd been feeling bad about her not being biologically human, so he was glad to see her looking relieved. "Yeah, they have been. It's great, huh?"

Ritsu nodded in agreement, looking so happy she was almost like a little child. "Yes, it makes me feel so…happy…"

Nagisa shifted a bit, noticing that she'd trailed off as if she had something else to say. "What's wrong?"

Ritsu let out a very tiny giggle and looked up at him. "…this is what I felt yesterday, with you. Happiness, I think. And…I really like this feeling."

"That's good." Nagisa replied, bending down and holding a hand out to her. "You'll feel even better after dinner, don't worry. You haven't experienced getting full yet."

"Oh, that sounds very interesting!" Ritsu got to her feet in an instant, pulling herself up with Nagisa's arm. But to be more accurate, it would suffice to say that Ritsu had yanked him by the wrist as she rose up. Nagisa, caught completely off guard, wound up with his face in the ground. Ritsu didn't realize her mistake, simply staring up at the campus building with her eyes sparkling out of wonder and curiosity. "I wonder how it will feel…"

… _I have to thank everyone for this. Somehow._ At that moment, Ritsu felt a resolve of steel harden in her new heart. She felt her fist tighten, her smile widen and her shoulders lighten.

"…Mpghmpghgh! Mphphmphpmhph!"

"What was that, Nagisa?" Ritsu turned around to realize that all she could see was his rear end sticking up in the air. "Oh dear, what happened to you?! Are you alright?"

What was lost in translation was, "Before you feel your stomach expand, could you get me out of here?! I'm stuck!"

As Ritsu struggled to pull his head out from the ground, Nagisa had a thought: _Is she really physically weak?! I might as well have been buried by a truck and you wouldn't tell the difference!_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Athletic Festival

The Athletic Festival was off to a resounding, booming start.

After having asked the Student's opinions, the festival had taken three days before being completely set up in the same place as the first one. It was festive like before, with trumpets blaring triumphantly while cheerleaders cartwheeled and somersaulted amongst lines of men that marched with loud grunts and energetic shouts that charged the air with the feel of hyped adrenaline.

The sandy ground of the large field where the male and female cheerleaders displayed their talents was extremely spacious, almost larger than the mountainous green plain behind the satellite campus that Koro-Sensei had flattened out for them. To the sides were the large, dark green bleachers that the management had dragged out from the gymnasium in order to accommodate the students. They looked old and worn out, and the occasional student would sit down on them and cringe when they hear the wood creak, and then they'd get to their feet and glance down at the bench worriedly.

The E Class sat at the very end of the bleachers, where the seats were the most rotten-looking and plastered with what looked like really old, moldy chewing gum stuck to the bottoms of the benches.

And they were rejoicing.

"That was a great job, Hara!" Kayano cheered as the token chubster of the class jogged over them with a tired but triumphant look on her face, sweat glistening on her forehead. The two high-fived joyfully, and Kayano even leaped into the air before her palm made contact with her friend's.

"I knew you would have won that bread-eating contest!" Karma remarked from the top bleachers, smirking. "Although that was Terasaka's suggestion."

"Hey! Don't try and pin that on me!" He replied, growling in protest as he inched away from Hara in fear that she would go ballistic. "You agreed to it, so don't just expect me to take the fall for you!"

Everyone just nudged away and laughed heartily as they watched the class jock get terrorized by Hara. After stifling his laughter, Nagisa looked over at the object that commanded most of the students' attention.

An extremely large brown and dark green board that looked a little too much like an oversized chalkboard stood on the opposite side of the field, enormous enough to be mistaken for a commercial billboard near the highway. On it was the name of each class, and next to the names were numbers that indicated how much points the respective class had won in the games.

Nagisa couldn't help but smile in glee when he saw the biggest digits, a whopping 36, next to Class E.

"Come on, the final event's starting!" Nagisa snapped to attention when he heard Professor Karasuma calling to the students. "Everyone who volunteered for the baton relay, please follow me!"

"That's us." Karma patted Nagisa on the shoulder as he descended from the bleachers with smooth, quick steps. Nagisa nodded in reply and got to his feet, and he glanced to his left.

The other two members for their baton relay sat on the other sides of the bleachers. At a glance, he could spot Itona sitting at the very top of the benches surrounded by Terasaka and the rest of his circle. In his hands was a Shounen Jump magazine, and next to him was a bowl of ramen that was completely empty.

"Itona, we're going!" Nagisa waved his hand to the white-haired boy, who simply nodded and placed his magazine back down on his seat when he got up. In a flash, Itona leaped from the top of the bleachers and landed on the ground without breaking a sweat, and he walked towards Karasuma. Seeing that, Nagisa just shrugged and walked over to the nearby staircase to follow him.

"C-coming!" A sudden cry made Nagisa turn around to see Kayano clumsily staggering towards him with a rice ball in her hand and a can of oolong tea in the other. Almost falling forward when her foot caught on a bench, she recovered from her dangerous dance and stopped in front of him.

He just sighed and moved to the side so that Kayano could move past him and descend the stairs. Nagisa took another look around, but couldn't find Ritsu anywhere. The only thing that caught his immediate attention, only to lost it right afterwards, was a tied-up Okajima in tears next to what appeared to be a broken camera, murmuring all the while, "…at least I can keep the pictures of girls in bloomers in my heart."

 _Where'd she go? She was supposed to-_

"Nagisa, let's go!"

The blue-haired boy turned at the sound of Ritsu's voice and realized that she was standing at the foot of the bleachers next to Kayano, who was still digging into her rice ball with enough gusto to make anyone immediately adjacent to her mouth-wateringly hungry.

Relieved, Nagisa descended the steps and stopped next to Ritsu. "Where were you? I couldn't find you anywhere."

Ritsu smiled in reply and turned around, her back to Nagisa as she said, "I was just preparing for the relay. Come, let's go."

"Uh, okay."

"Win this for us, guys!" The students sudden began cheering and whooping, only to receive sharp glares from Professor Karasuma, hushes from Professor Irina and chuckles from the competitors.

… _we have to win. I'll make sure of it._ Ritsu thought to herself, clenching her fists and nodding once to psych herself up.

"…? Did something good happen, Ritsu?"

"Nothing, Nagisa."

* * *

The relay was a very physically demanding one for the average student. The starting point was at the westernmost point of the field, but the track circled around the entire school to end right where they had started.

"…are you sure we can do this?" Nagisa asked uncertainly, his eyebrows scrunched to block the sunlight directly striking his forehead as he waited for the other classes to fall into place at the starting line. He and the other Class E students participating were all already present, so they had nothing to do but stand and wait before the other four students had to go to their respective waiting points on the course.

"Of course we can." Karma scoffed confidently in reply. "Most of the best athletes had already participated in the other events, so the other classes are running on fumes. We have a very real shot at winning, especially since we have demanding physical training for P.E."

"The route's been calculated and the most ideal runners have already been selected. We can't fail." Ritsu added with a smile, pumping her fists once in eagerness.

 _Glad to see you're doing fine._ Nagisa thought to himself, not daring to let a single moment betray his thoughts to his peers lest Karma begin to pester him like a tick does a dog: incessantly and annoyingly.

A loud whistle pierced the air: the signal for the runners to get to their marks.

"Well then, you're first, Nagisa." Itona said quietly, tossing his classmate the red baton that had been handed to him earlier. He walked away without another word, leaving the other four members at the starting point.

"Break a leg." Karma said, grinning slyly with a wink before he began jogging to his designated spot.

"Y-you can do this!" Ritsu and Kayano said at the same time, even stuttering in sync. The two of them looked at each other, embarrassed, and laughed loudly before they too left Nagisa at the starting point.

Once he was alone, Nagisa let the smile disappear from his face as he closed his eyes. He took a single, deep breath and let the sunlight-warmed air enter his lungs and spread energy through his entire body. After a few more breaths of revitalizing himself, Nagisa lifted his chin and opened his eyes to look at the sky.

And there, against the bright blue canvas of the sky, was a message written out of clouds: **Good luck, Class E!** Next to the words was a mascot that no one except the aforementioned class knew well: a tiny, cute octopus.

 _Sheesh._ Nagisa's smile only crept back onto his face despite his best efforts to wipe it off. _He's like a doting parent._

"On your marks!" A loud voice called out from the side. Nagisa, holding the red baton in his hands, crouched slightly and narrowed his eyebrows.

 _Let's win this thing, guys!_

"Go!"

The crack of the pistol resounded with an echo, and Nagisa took off.

* * *

 **Ten Minutes Later…**

"Ritsu!"

Itona yelled out breathlessly as he sprinted forward, his decently developed shoulders rotating as quickly a wheel while his arms swung up and down in time with the rhythm of his legs. While he was still five hundred meters away from his classmate, he had a steady lead ahead of the other classes' athletes.

The girl in mention flinched in surprise at the warning shout her peer had sent her way as he cannonballed forward like a rocket running on Red Bull-type fuel.

… _where are the other runners?_ Ritsu wondered as she looked past Itona, and only the A class runner was in sight. The other ones hadn't even turned the corner that Itona had barreled past.

 _Maybe I can help win this after all…_

She clenched her fingers tightly, and she felt her lips pressing against themselves. And all of a sudden, she realized that she was being assaulted with more sensations than she could bear to try counting.

Her mind felt like it was in a vise, unable to think properly. Her heartbeat felt like a drum being banged violently in her chest, and her lungs felt like they weren't getting nearly enough oxygen.

Before she knew it, the fist she had formed with her balled fingers were twitching.

… _what is this feeling?_ Ritsu was again mystified by the sensations and feelings unknown to her, and felt trapped and lost.

She didn't know what was going on. She looked down at her trembling hands as if she were losing her sense of self and was slipping away from reality.

 _What's happening to me?_

* * *

"…she's nervous." Nakamura muttered.

A single giant monitor was present like those in baseball stadiums and basketball arenas, where everyone could see the runners through cameras.

Ritsu was one of the ones onscreen. And her emotions were so visible that it wasn't even funny.

All eyes from Class E were on that monitor, including the previous runners who had managed to make it back to the finish line to support her.

And Nagisa's stared at it intently, as if he could telepathically send messages to Ritsu through focusing on that monitor.

 _Ritsu…_

* * *

"Take it, quickly!" Itona yelled as he pressed the baton he'd clenched in his fist into Ritsu's hand.

But Ritsu remained frozen, her eyes distant and her legs anchored to the floor.

"I-I…" As the pressure closed in and the other classes' runners began appearing, Ritsu's anxiety only grew worse. As if shackles bound her from moving, Ritsu stayed rooted to the spot.

And just like that, her insecurity came rushing back to her.

 _I…I can't do this!_ Her heart that was once jumping with readiness to win the event was now plummeting in a downwards spiral of dread. _I shouldn't have volunteered for this! I can't beat a real person!_

 _I'm just a cheap replacement of a human being!_

"I…can't." The words came out cracked and broken, like her vocal cords had been shattered and pierce with fragmented glass. Her eyes finally registered Itona's, but nothing else changed. "I…"

"You can do it." Itona denied her claim bluntly, shaking his head as if she had questioned why gravity makes objects go downward instead of upward. "You can win this."

"I can't!" Ritsu could only repeat the words, but her voice sounded more and more hollow.

"…you're more human than I am, you know."

Those words cut through the panicked, dread-filled haze that clouded Ritsu's heart and mind, and she stared at Itona. But the white-haired boy did nothing but stare back in reply, not a trace of emotion visible in his indifferent expression.

But they glinted with determination. "If you can feel insecure and worry, then you're human. More human than most of these people, anyway." He gestured casually to the runners that were catching up to them. His eyes narrowed. "Underestimating yourself…how human can you become, Ritsu?"

Just then, Ritsu felt a whoosh of wind rush past her face as a runner whizzed by. Itona grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her around and then pushed her on the back. "Now, go! Everyone's waiting for you!"

"R-right!" Left with nothing else to say, Ritsu immediately bolted as quickly as she could, turning the corner after a full-on sprint of seven hundred meters and dashing for all she could. As she made the turn, she almost felt herself trip over her own feet and smash face-first into the ground, but she remained upright.

 _Wh-what do I do?!_ Her mind was a completely mess, her panic apparent whenever she glanced at the Class A runner ahead of her. _We're going to lose!_

* * *

 _She needs support._

Without warning, Nagisa stood up from the bleachers and bolted for the track.

"N-Nagisa?!" Nakamura cried out in surprise, taken aback since he had been sitting directly next to her. After recovering from her initial shock, the blonde got to her feet and ran after Nagisa. "Hey, Nagisa! Are you okay?!"

More people followed, but none of them registered in Nagisa's mind as he began running past the finish line, skirting the edge of the actual track, and ran in the direction towards Ritsu.

 _Ritsu, I probably know what's going on in your mind._

 _And I know that you're wrong._

* * *

Ritsu was reaching her physical limit, and she knew it.

Pain was already searing her limbs as she ran, and every step she took felt more like a shockwave was jarring her from the sole of her foot to the top of her shoulders. What little breath she could take in was being spent faster than she could handle, and Ritsu knew that complete exhaustion was imminent.

But no matter how hard she pushed herself, the Class A runner kept ahead of her by a few feet.

 _I can't do this!_ Completely demoralized with her emotions a hot mess, Ritsu could do nothing but press on with her heart that was getting heavier and heavier. _I…I can't beat a real-_

"Go, Ritsu!"

Suddenly, she heard a voice calling out to her from somewhere she couldn't see. Not recognizing it immediately due to her drained body and mind, she looked around to identify the source.

As she neared the bend with the bleachers, she spotted Nagisa waving his arms around to catch her attention, shouting and cheering for her.

"You can do this!" He yelled out, his hands around his mouth to act as a sound amplifier.

"I…I…" Unable to reply with her breath escaping her, she could only convey her message with her eyes.

However, that message went by ignored.

"You can do this! We didn't train you without getting results!" Sugino yelled out from behind Nagisa, holding a thumbs up.

"We'll buy pizza or whatever you want after this!" Kayano cheered as well, leaping in the air with both legs like a spring while her arms were raised high.

"If you stop now, we'll throw Okajima in the river by the campus!" Nakamura yelled with a devilish grin, the victim in question slung over her shoulder and groaning in complaint.

"Everyone…" Ritsu could see all of Class E slowly forming a crowd where Nagisa was standing, and she managed to smile in spite of her pain. "…thank you."

"You can do it!" They all repeated in unison, raising a fist.

 _I can do it! If they believe in me, I can do it!_

Ritsu gained speed like never before, and she began running as hard and fast as she could. Her feet pounded the ground like never before, and her arms swung wildly like pendulums.

 _I can do it!_

* * *

"…sorry, guys."

Ritsu bowed deeply, her long hair touching the ground. "I didn't get first place."

"I told you, we'll party no matter what! You did such a good job in getting second place!" Kayano patted her on the back, a cellphone in hand as she also cycled through a list of pizza places on her delivery list.

"I'm more concerned about you." Hinata replied worriedly. She was standing behind Ritsu, examining her legs and arms. "Apart from the fact that you're not human, you have a bunch of scrapes and bruises from falling down once you hit the finish line. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, my self-healing processes will take care of the wounds I incur." Ritsu replied reassuringly. "Thank you for the concern, though. I highly appreciate it."

"It's a shame we lost that one, but I guess it doesn't really matter." Maehara sighed, staring at the photo-finish on the giant monitor.

"Yes, it doesn't." Okuda retorted. "We still win."

It took around two seconds for everyone who heard that to stop, let it register, and then turn around to stare at her. But before anyone could ask her anything, a voice on loudspeaker suddenly began to speak.

"I, Gakuhou Asano, will now announce the results of this athletic competition." The unmistakable voice of the principal came out of the speakers, and every student hushed like their mouths had been strapped with duct tape.

"…in first place, with the MVP being Hara Sumire for winning the Bread-Eating competition for 10 points, Class E."

Time stopped, and all sound had halted.

The silence was then blasted away by the cheers of Class E and the groans of every other class.

"Great job, Hara!" Kurahashi patted the MVP on the back, laughing. "You're like a vacuum cleaner! Just like the last sports festival!"

"It wasn't a big deal." Hara replied with a modest, humble chuckle as she scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I mean, bread's just a drink."

 _No one normal can drink bread_ was what everyone wanted to say, but kept in their hearts.

* * *

It had been five hours since then.

After everyone had stayed for a little post-festival celebration to eat food, relax and enjoy themselves, Ritsu and Nagisa had bade them a good evening and prepared to sleep for the following day.

"Hey, Nagisa." Ritsu suddenly asked as she continued to clean up the rest of the mess left behind by her classmates. She held a few boxes of pizzas and a few tens of paper plates stacked atop those as well. She turned to the boy helping her across the room who was sweeping the floor with a broom and dustpan.

"Yeah?" Nagisa responded, looking up from the floor to speak to her. Despite that, though, Nagisa kept sweeping the floor without looking at it as if he'd memorized the dirty spots in the room. "What is it?"

"Um…what are you doing tomorrow?" Ritsu asked. "It's a weekend tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah." Nagisa shrugged and continued to sweep, returning his gaze to the floor as he cleaned. "I guess…I might go back home for the weekend? I don't know."

"I see." Ritsu bowed her head and moved the sliding door open with her foot, closing it behind her with her foot as well once she had walked outside of the classroom.

… _I feel like I have to thank Nagisa for everything he's done for me._ Images and memories of Nagisa being there for her invaded her mind, and she couldn't help but feel happy when they appeared. As she walked out of the building and threw them in the trash can, Ritsu let out a sigh before beginning to walk back in.

With each step up the stairs, her feelings of sincere gratitude and thanks only grew stronger, as well as her urge to express those feelings. And when she reached the top, Ritsu had to stop and close her eyes.

She knew, a bit, what feelings were like now. She understood a little bit more about human nature, and it still amazed her how little her robotic logic had done for her when she was assaulted by emotion.

It did absolutely nothing good. In fact, it even helped confuse her more.

… _but when they all cheered for me and encouraged me, it felt like nothing was keeping me glued to the ground anymore._ Ritsu recalled the weight of her arms like boulders and her feet like trucks back at the track, and she almost laughed at how ridiculous it seemed to her now.

… _I have to show my gratitude somehow._

"Hey, Ritsu! Where are you?" Nagisa's voice suddenly hollered from inside the building, and Ritsu could hear him. "I need you to tell me where your mattress is so I can set it up!"

"Coming!" Ritsu called back as she ran inside, suppressing the smile on her face when she did.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Anxious Repayment

… _gratitude…?_

Ritsu thought silently to herself, her technological wonder of a brain skimming through dozens of databases for the various connotations brought on by the word that remained implanted in her mind like it had been branded with steel. It also dragged confusion into her mind thanks to the fact that the dictionary definition that she had grown accustomed to from her time prior to Koro-Sensei's upgrade did not come with a heavy human factor such as emotions into it.

Ritsu herself still didn't quite understand what it was that she was experiencing, yet only that she was experiencing strange phenomena that was not what she considered normal. She'd never experienced the unexplainable urge to smile or the strange constricting feelings in her chest like some illness had suddenly beset itself upon her body.

The girl sat alone in the classroom in her seat, staring outside the window with her chin rested on her palm. Silence reigned in the room, for Ritsu had never developed the habit nor ever saw the need to speak to herself like some people would. The only sounds that her auditory receptors could detect were the sounds of nature in addition to that of her own vitals; the faint whistle of the wind that streaked like invisible ribbons in empty space, the near-silent clatter of the window's sliding door as the wind pushed against it, prompting it to rattle ever so slightly and create a wooden noise that would have never gone noticed if the class had been going on at that moment; the huff and puff of her own breathing that cast out warm, undetectable wisps of her breath into the atmosphere.

She did not care to leave her legs to merely rest on the floor, for her thoughts were not only filled with words and confusion but also with an unexplainable anxiety. Her feet kicked the air endlessly, nothing in front of them to strike, as if she were anticipating something that was never to come. Despite the fact that the action was absent-minded, the former resident of the digital world took care not to hit the legs of her table with her feet.

While she was under the impression that she was not that physically strong, she did not wish to incur any damage to school property in the event that she could be wrong. And she knew that the chance was present, given that her body was made of more than just biomatter; having experimental bio-technological flesh as a body gave room to doubt since there existed no previous data for her to base her assumptions on.

But there she sat, her superior intellect stuck dwindling on a simple yet also complex thing: human emotion.

 _After everything that's happened…I want to thank Nagisa for watching over me._ Ritsu thought to herself, trying to reconfirm what she herself was feeling. _I think that the word for what I am feeling is gratitude…right?_

She suddenly realized something and shook her head. _Wait, it's not just Nagisa. I have to thank everyone for helping me get this far._

Suddenly, the sound of wood sliding over wood interrupted her thoughts. Ritsu turned around, and there was someone standing at the doorway.

"Good afternoon." A girl stood there, one that the rest of Class E wasn't too familiar with but knew of. She wore the exact same uniform as Ritsu, and even had a wig that looked exactly like the A.I's. Her body type was completely different from Ritsu, though, and so was her face.

The nickname "Fake Ritsu" had been bestowed upon her some time ago, and she preferred it that way for the sake of anonymity.

Ritsu got up and walked over to the other girl, waving her hand in greeting. "Hello. What subjects will we be covering today?"

Fake Ritsu just let out a wayward sigh and slumped her shoulders. "…a lot."

"Where should we start, then?" Ritsu asked in reply, slowly walking backwards and setting up a pair of tables for the two of them to use. "Math? I know that it's not your strong point."

"Yeah, let's go with that." Fake Ritsu shrugged as she walked over to one of the tables and sat down on it, her bag making a big thump as it hit the ground. "You are a supercomputer, so Math is always easy for you to teach."

Ritsu nodded, giggling as she replied, "Well, okay then. Let's begin."

* * *

 **Thirty Minutes Later…**

"Okay, let's take a break." Ritsu suddenly announced, stepping away from the blackboard.

After a few minutes of private tutoring using nothing but Fake Ritsu's own textbook, Ritsu decided to teach by way of drawing examples and had begun to draw and write those examples on the blackboard with chalk. As a result, white lines of text sprawled all over the green board looking like a monk had written them as a sutra. Multiple drawings were also present, and they looked like inscriptions in complementation to the sutras.

Fake Ritsu let out a sigh of relief, but also gave Ritsu a look of confusion. "I' glad we're stopping, but why now? It's only been…" She took care to look at her phone before continuing. "…thirty minutes, you know."

Ritsu nodded, placing the piece of chalk in her hand down onto the tray under the blackboard and stepped off of the teacher's platform. "Well, according to studies, an average human being's memory retention when studying caps out at thirty minutes. Study for any longer and you will begin to forget what you started with. It's best to take a short break in between so that you'll remember more."

"I see." Fake Ritsu replied. "You really do know everything."

"No, I don't know everything. I only know what I know."

"Don't steal a line from the Monogatari series. Shaft will sue you for copyright."

The purple-haired girl just giggled and skipped over to her friend, removing the purple wig on Fake Ritsu's head to reveal her light brown hair that had been pulled back into a bun to easily accommodate the purple wig. "Isn't it warm with this on?" Ritsu asked her out of curiosity and concern.

"Oh, I didn't realize that I still had this on." Fake Ritsu replied, laughing embarrassedly as she took the wig back and placed it on one of the tables next to her. "Thanks, I was wondering why I was sweating a little more than usual."

Ritsu just giggled again and sat down in the chair next to her friend. "Hmm…what should we do for the next fifteen minutes…? Maybe First Letter, Last Letter? Or maybe Chess?"

"You're in a good mood." Fake Ritsu suddenly remarked, turning to face Ritsu with a smile. She rested her cheek on her palm and leaned on the backrest of the chair. "Did something good happen?"

For some reason, her train of thought from earlier wheeled back into Ritsu's brain station. "N-nothing in particular." Ritsu replied, shrugging and trying to play off her stutter.

It didn't work. Fake Ritsu continued to stare harder at Ritsu, and she inched a little closer. "You're only making me more curious. You're never like this, so what happened?"

 _Actually…if I were to confide in someone who may have more experience than I do, perhaps I would be able to discover a way to properly convey my thanks._

Ritsu, realizing this, let her gaze linger on Fake Ritsu for far too long. Fake Ritsu noticed this and patted her hand on the table next to her. "Come on. You look like you want someone to talk to."

 _Is that how I look like?_ Ritsu immediately placed her hands on her face, and she felt her cheeks flushing slightly. They were warmer than her hands, and it mystified her because she knew that she was not ill in the slightest.

She heeded her friend's words and sat down across form Fake Ritsu, unsure of how to proceed. "…um…"

"So? What's going on?" Fake Ritsu asked, folding one arm over the other and resting them on the surface of the table that Ritsu sat at. "You can tell me. Hardly anyone talks to me, and no one knows my real name." She said, although her boasting tone carried with it a hint of bitterness. "Any secrets you leave with me will remain buried six feet under."

… _I can trust her._ Ritsu came to that conclusion and let out a deep breath, staring with intent at her friend. Her heart pounded for reasons she couldn't explain nor understand, and she could tell the urge to run away. _At least…I think so._

The explanation came and went quickly, though messily thanks to Ritsu's state of mind. Fake Ritsu listened intently the entire time, paying attention like the quiet, good friend that she was to Ritsu.

"…so, in short, you thought that you could treat Nagisa to a day out as thanks for being there for you when you needed him." Fake Ritsu summed up for her, nodding once. "That sounds pretty okay."

 _Though it sounds like it could generate misunderstandings…_ Fake Ritsu thought to herself, not daring to say a word.

"Yeah…" Ritsu replied, nodding. However, she did not face her friend anymore and instead looked to the ground like she was conversing with it instead.

Fake Ritsu found that strange, and she peered more closely at Ritsu "What's wrong?"

Ritsu just sighed and slumped her shoulders. "But…I feel like I don't really want to…how can I put it? Uncomfortable…" She suddenly recovered from what seemed like her depression, her cheeks red as she shook her hands in a **no** fashion. "But it's not like I dislike him or anything! I really want to thank him! I want to show my gratitude! To Nagisa and to the rest of the class for helping me make it this far!"

But Fake Ritsu tried her best not to smile knowingly.

She was aware that Ritsu was not foreign to the concept of emotions, but she could easily tell that the flustered girl's new heart was confused.

And she could already guess Ritsu's true feelings, even if Ritsu herself was still unaware of it. Even if they were simply budding feelings, she could tell.

"Well, I think you should go and do it." Fake Ritsu said encouragingly, nodding her head and smiling gently. "You want to thank him, don't you?"

Ritsu remained stubborn, shaking her head. Her words became fragmented and broken; Fake Ritsu tried to keep from smiling out of amusement as Ritsu stuttered and struggled to get the words out. "Th-that may be so, but…for some reason, I think another way would be better."

"Why? Aren't you friends?"

Ritsu hesitated; both her mind and her body froze in an instant that felt like eternity as she pondered the question.

" _Aren't you friends?" Yes, we are._

 _We are friends._

 _You don't need to ask that question. We are friends._

And yet, Ritsu found herself doubting her own words. Her hand, without her even wanting it to, laid itself over her heart. Under her skin, Ritsu could feel her heart beating fast and hard, like a piston was jackhammering itself into the walls of her flesh.

She didn't feel like "friend" was the word.

Yet that was the only word she knew that could possibly describe their relationship with one another.

Friends.

"…you've totally forgotten I'm here, haven't you?"

Ritsu let out a quiet, startled yelp when the only other person in the room let out a sarcastic remark, and she turned to face Fake Ritsu. "Oh, I-I'm sorry!"

Fake Ritsu just laughed good-naturedly in reply. "It's okay." A thought suddenly occurred to her and she shifted in her seat. "Actually, it just came to me. None of Class E, even you, know my name, right? I never introduced myself."

Ritsu's eyes widened when she realized that her proxy was right. "I-indeed. I apologize. I never looked up your personal information to find out, so I don't know, either."

"Alright, I'll tell you first. My name is Nise Onaga." She said, smiling. "Anyway, my name aside, just ask Nagisa out to treat him. You know, as friends. You can check online; there's probably a ton of stuff there that'll tell you about _friends-only_ kinds of stuff."

Ritsu, no longer sure of what to say in reply, tried to say something, but her mind was cluttered. "U-um-"

"By the way, our break's over. Can we move on to chemistry?"

"R-right, sorry!"

* * *

 **The Next Day…**

"Alright, class!" Koro-Sensei announced with a loud, proud voice as he gathered up his papers from the teacher's desk. "We're done for today's classes! I'll be seeing you tomorrow morning."

"You sound like you're in a hurry, teach." Karma said, whipping out his pistol and began firing casually, approaching the blackboard as he did. "Whatcha up to?"

The yellow teacher snickered confidently as he easily dodged the pellets with incomparable ease and appeared next to the window. "Yes, I am! I have a reservation over in London at the restaurant in the Buckingham Palace, and being late is unacceptable to my wallet!"

Without another word, he threw the window door open and flew out, leaving the class to themselves.

"Aww, I wanted to kill him, but I don't have international coverage." Karma uttered a curse as he glanced down at his phone, and then shrugged and placed the handheld back in his pocket. "See ya." He waved a hand at his classmates before he strode out the door as if he hadn't just attempted to murder someone.

 _As usual, Karma's amazing._ Nagisa thought respectfully from the bottom of his heart. He zipped up his schoolbag and hefted onto his shoulder and began walking towards the front door.

He stopped when he felt a tug on his arm from behind, and he turned to realize that Ritsu had been the one to stop him. "N-Nagisa."

 _Wh-what is this?_ Nagisa thought to himself, trying to retain his composure. The atmosphere was tense and nervous, and he could feel it pouring out of the girl in front of her. "Yeah?" Nagisa blurted out the question, unsure what to make of what was happening in front of him. "Something wrong, Ritsu?"

There were still a number of people in the room, and a good number of them were either minding their own business or intentionally ignoring them out of respect for their privacy. Okajima was in his own little world, practically burying himself in one of Koro-Sensei's dirty magazines stashed underneath the teacher's desk. Takebayashi stood next to him as if he were keeping guard for the boy that was indulging in the lewd material, periodically glancing down at the magazines and shaking his head as if he were disappointed, muttering all the while to himself things such as "The 2D realm reigns supreme."

Nakamura, Kanzaki, Kayano and Okano were sitting in a circular arrangement with a single magazine in between them. They chatted amongst one another about the content of the magazine as well as sharing stories with one another related to said content whilst eating from a bouquet of snacks that Kayano had distributed amongst them from her trove of snacks. They were somewhat close to Nagisa and Ritsu, as their circle of seats were in the middle of the room.

Ritsu opened her mouth to speak. But for the first time, she found that her tongue was not moving the way she wanted it to. Her lips moved without making a sound for a whole second that felt like it lasted five, and when her voice finally managed to come out, it was almost a squeak or a croak in comparison to her usual voice. "U-um…"

"Is something wrong, Ritsu?" Nagisa immediately grew concerned, turning to face the girl and speak with her properly. He narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer, staring at Ritsu. He noticed that her face was reddening by the second, and all sorts of thoughts began to run through his mind.

 _Whoa! She looks like she's got a fever! Wait, can her body even get fevers? But why does she look like she's sick? Hang on, that doesn't even matter! I have to check if she's okay! Maybe it's stress? She has been pushing herself lately…maybe she caught a cold after pushing her new body too hard or something!_

But Ritsu was nearly paralyzed with nervousness, and she could feel her chest beating like Donkey Kong had ADHD and was playing his bongos. Her thoughts were as messy as a stereotypical single 9-to-5-worker's small apartment bedroom, and just as difficult to organize.

"N-n-n-nothing!" Ritsu, having completely lost it, just shook her head and turned around. "Never mind!" She immediately bolted for the other side of the room. When she reached her terminal that was behind her desk, she touched a button on the back.

Instantly, the terminal opened up like a pod. Ritsu leaped inside, and the terminal closed behind her.

… _since when could it do that?_ Was what everyone else in the classroom thought.

However, as most everyone else returned to their business, and while Nagisa decided to just walk for the door and talk to Ritsu tomorrow, the circle of girls nearby had paid enough attention, and possessed enough feminine intuition, to understand what had just happened.

"You think…maybe…?" Nakamura asked, her voice down to a light, nearly undetectable whisper that was easier to understand by lip reading, as she gestured ever-so-subtly in the direction of the purple-haired female that had chosen to seal herself away from her immediate surroundings.

"Totally!" Okano giggled with a grin, trying her best not to squeal out loud. "Oh, she's so cute!"

The black-haired girl of the four quietly got to her feet and pushed her chair back into her table. "Wanna help?" Kanzaki asked the three with a gentle smile. "I think this is something that her own helper can't teach her."

"This is where being a girl rocks!" Kayano agreed with a smile, pumping her fist with a wink. "I say we go for it!"

With all of them in consensus, the group quickly shuffled over to the terminal while trying not to look totally conspicuous. This didn't go too well, but there were too little people left in the room to bother calling their attention out on it.

Okano knocked onto the side of the terminal softly, the light metallic sound making faint dings. "Hey, Ritsu. Open up. We're gonna help you out."

It took but a moment for half of the terminal's door to fold inward into the mechanism of the terminal to reveal Ritsu looking very hesitant, curious and also breathing hard. She looked like she had just run a triathlon by herself, minus the sweat. "Wait, what are you-?!"

Before she could finish her sentence, Nakamura quickly yanked her out of the small opening and grinned. "We're gonna give you advice, so come with us. And don't tell anyone you did."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Ritsu cried out as she was lifted by the four girls, each one taking one of her limbs, and spirited out of the classroom like a pig tied to a pole. "Where are you taking me?!"

But the girls did not answer as they ran out the door, slamming it shut with their feet as they exited in high spirits while trying not to giggle the whole time.


End file.
